Lisa Lillien: Online Diet-Food Diva

For this Web entrepreneur from Encino, California, an e-mail a day keeps the pounds away. Read about Lisa's site and learn more about her in our Web-exclusive Q&A. Plus, this "Hungry Girl" reveals to GH her top 10 secret food finds!

Her great idea: Lillien e-mails a daily newsletter full of fun  and frank  reviews of the latest packaged foods and treats for the weight conscious. Letting her taste buds do the talking, she tells thousands of subscribers what she thinks about, say, that new low-sodium soup or fat-free ice cream. Her online identity: a sassy character named Hungry Girl.

How she got started: After decades of struggling with her weight, Lillien shed 30 pounds by giving up pasta and starches and eliminating junk food. Once her diet was under control, Lillien, now 39, decided to allow some of those foods back into her life  but cautiously. "I scoured the supermarket for healthy foods that would satisfy my cravings," she says. And she itched to share her findings. "I'd see someone in the grocery store choosing a low-fat frozen dinner, and I'd have to tell her my favorites."

Spreading the word: Lillien invested $10,000 of her savings to launch an electronic newsletter and a Website (she'd already had experience working with dot-coms) and sent her first news blast in April 2004 to 200 people. Today, the "goddess of grub" has about 100,000 subscribers. Each day's e-mail has a different theme; on Fridays, for example, "Girls Bite Out" offers weekend survival tips.

A disclaimer: "I'm not a nutritionist," says Lillien. "I'm just hungry!"

The bottom line: Subscriptions are free; Lillien sells ads to earn money. She made a profit of about $60,000 last year and hopes to quadruple that in 2006.

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